The More, The Married-er: Same Sex Marriage in NYC

Sunday was the state of New York's first day allowing gay marriage, which would already put the date into the record books, but then the doors opened for business this morning and the people came, and came, and came. In New York city alone, "659 couples picked up licenses and 484 wed at city marriage bureaus," The New York Timesreports. The Times' City Room blog posted stories all day Sunday on couples who came to marry on the first possible day: on (one of) the first, on a guy who got a new kidney and a new husband over four months, on a couple who fought personal demons together. Even the mayor got in on the fun on Sunday.

Bloomberg presided over the wedding of John Feinblatt, a senior advisor, and Jonathan Mintz, the commissioner for Consumer Affairs, at Gracie Mansion, reportsThe New York Observer. It was announced at the start of July that Bloomberg would work the wedding, a job he volunteered to do for his City Hall co-workers. Surrounded by friends, family and media, Feinblatt and Mintz got married after being together for 14 years. They also have adorable two daughters, Maeve and Georgia. The couple exchanged rings and went through the traditional motions, and then the mayor said, "by the powers vested in me by the State of New York, I pronounce you… married.” The crowd gathered into a tent after the ceremony for a reception, but the party couldn't go too late. Everyone has to get up for work Monday morning. Mintz and Feinblatt weren't even given the day off.

The mayor opened his remarks at the wedding, The Observer has a full transcript, with a warning: he didn't have a lot of experience presiding over a wedding. He had only done two before: one for his daughter and another for former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. "But if I slip up," the mayor said, "Maeve and Georgia, feel free to step in and tell me what I’m doing wrong." In the middle of his speech, Bloomberg offered a concession to his two friends:

It’s taken New York State a long time to recognize what the two of you must have known instinctively: that two people who want to be together, and raise a family together, and spend the rest of their lives together – have a relationship – and a beautiful family – that, in every way, deserves to be recognized and commemorated equally under the eye of the law.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.

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Connor Simpson is a former staff writer for The Wire. His work has appeared in Business Insider and City Lab.